Mortlake Terrace: Early Summer Morning

Mortlake Terrace: Early Summer Morning from 1826 at the Frick Collection in New York is one of Turner's most serene and spatially expansive canvases — the Thames at Mortlake in the stillness of early summer morning, the light flat and diffused, the composition balanced between the formal architecture of the terrace and the natural openness of the river. The painting was commissioned by William Moffatt, who owned the Mortlake property, and Turner adapted his atmospheric approach to the requirements of a topographical commission while investing the subject with the luminous quality that made his work immediately recognizable. The Frick Collection holds this work in the intimate museum environment of Henry Clay Frick's former mansion, where it can be seen in a domestic scale appropriate to its origins as a commissioned view. The Frick's British holdings, concentrated in its magnificent room of Turners, provide one of the most distinguished contexts for experiencing Turner's middle-period landscape work outside the Tate.

The luminous morning light flooding through the trees creates a golden atmosphere of extraordinary delicacy. Turner's rendering of the sunlight filtering through foliage and reflecting on the river demonstrates his supreme mastery of natural light effects.